Medi-Share Review :: One Family’s Experience

My wife and I have been using Medi-Share since January 2015. Since then, we’ve had a lot of other Christian families ask our opinion on Medi-Share. Like many families out there, we don’t have group health insurance at our jobs because I am a small business owner and my wife works PRN shifts as a nurse. When researching healthcare plans, we were shocked by the increased cost of the Affordable Care Act. Thankfully, as Christians, we have an alternative. Before I tell you about our experience, let’s cover the basics of Medi-Share.

Wanna Talk About Our Medi-Share Experience?

If you are seriously considering signing up for Medi-Share, and you understand the basics but just want to talk with someone who’s actually used it, feel free to reach out; we’d be happy to tell you about our experience. Before we signed up, having someone who has used the service and could answer a lot of our practical, what-does-this-look-like-in-real-life questions would have been invaluable to us.

What is Medi-Share?

Medi-Share is an alternative for traditional health insurance. It is a healthcare-sharing ministry where members share each other’s medical expenses. You must be a professed Christian to become a member. Their 5 main points are:

Choice:Members of Medi-Share have a God-honoring choice for their healthcare, and their dollars will never be used for procedures that go against their conscience.

Acceptable:Although not insurance, Medi-Share members are exempt from the mandate to purchase insurance or face financial penalties.

Affordable:With seven levels of sharing, you’ll find flexible options to fit your family and budget, at around half the cost of other healthcare programs.

Access: Use one of the largest networks of providers in the country, or choose your own provider.

Community:Fellow members will be praying for and encouraging you, and you’ll have the opportunity to do the same.

How Does It Work?

Similar to traditional health insurance, you have a monthly premium (called a Share Amount). And that Share amount goes up or down based on how much you choose as your Annual Household Portion (AHP—think “Deductible”).

Let’s say you choose the $2,500 AHP, and your monthly premium is $300. You go to the doctor as you normally would, and you give them your Medi-Share Card (same as you would any insurance card). Once you complete the doctor visit, they send your bill to Medi-Share for review.

Medi-Share negotiates any discounts they may be able to get, and then you pay the discounted bill. If it is an eligible visit, the amount you pay goes towards your AHP (Annual Household Portion). Once you pay out-of-pocket for eligible medical expenses up to your $2,500 plan, then the other community members pay your eligible bills.

Eligibility Requirements

Medi-Share is built on Biblical principles of health and lifestyle, and each adult member must profess to have a personal relationship with Christ, profess to a Statement of Faith, and agree to live by Biblical standards.

For example, members must agree to not:

Use tobacco and illegal drugs

Abuse legal drugs

Have sex outside of tradition Christian marriage

How Much Does It Cost?

Of course, there are a lot of factors that goes into cost. Like family size, age, number of kids, plus your “Annual Household Portion” amount you choose. (Again, think “deductible.”) Thankfully, they have a calculator that can quickly give you a quote.

All you have to tell them is the number of family members, the birthdate of the oldest family member, and then you can see prices for all Share levels.

Plus, they give you 20% off if you qualify for their Health Incentive Discount.

In our experience after talking to families of all sizes, Medi-Share is considerably less than the healthcare exchanges at Healthcare.gov in almost every scenario.

Our Experience After One Year

Fortunately for you, and unfortunately for us, we had a busy year at the doctor, so we experienced Medi-Share in full. Meaning, we used all of our AHP Level of $5,000, so we saw how Medi-Share did in fact pay 100% of all our eligible bills over our AHP amount.

Our initial plan was to give them a one-year trial run, and then decide if we would continue. We were happy with our experience, and we decided to continue with Medi-Share in 2016.

Would We Recommend It?

Absolutely. Every family situation is different, so it’s up to you to know if they are best for your family. All we can tell you is that our experience was a great alternative to going to the health exchanges of the Affordable Care Act.

In 2016, we’re going with Medi-Share again, plus, we have a baby on the way. We’ve been working with Medi-Share and our OB, and everything has been smooth to set up. To our surprise, our doctor’s office had worked with dozens of Medi-Share families over the years, so our billing discussions with them were simple.

Wanna Talk More About Our Medi-Share Experience?

We were relieved to not have to pay crazy high prices on health insurance. We know multiple MarriageRoots families in both Louisiana and Texas who are using Medi-Share—some who have had some serious medical issues—as a cost-effective alternative to what’s being offered through traditional insurance companies.

So again, if you are seriously considering signing up for it, and you understand the basics but you just want to talk with someone else who’s actually used it, you can contact us here.

Ryan Stubblefield married Kori when they were both in their early thirties and they’ve been married for 3 years now. He’s still trying to get over the fact that she doesn’t share his love for coffee, but Kori keeps reminding him about how much money that saves him over their lifetimes. Ryan is a serial entrepreneur and has been starting companies since he was in college. Most recently, he’s been the brains behind SingleRoots and MarriageRoots because he loves hearing stories of people living intentionally and counter-culturally and taking scary steps of faith in life.

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